Shock Treatment

If you ever have a hunch that a movie you saw in your youth was good, give your memory the benefit of the doubt, because you may be surprised once or twice: now, 52 years after its release in cinemas, I have bought a copy of "Shock Treatment" that was made in Germany (with Spanish subtitles!) with above average quality, and I found out how good it is. No wonder I had not forgotten this movie, even if I could not remember the plot. It is definitely not a serious drama, for it mixes a touch of camp and humor in a story that borders on horror and science-fiction, played with gusto by everybody, especially Lauren Bacall as a wicked psychiatrist. On the other hand, if you approach it as a straight psychological drama, you will find that scriptwriter Sydney Boehm was quite sincere and treated the "psychic elements" of the story with all the respect you could expect in 1964, to add as much realism and credibility as he could to such a wacky tale. Everybody in the cast seems to be having a field day: Stuart Whitman was in his best years doing his usual hunk hero number, Roddy McDowall was quite effective as a psycho killer with loads of homoerotic sensibility, Carol Lynley has more than enough screen time to portray a troubled girl whose natural sensuality was repressed by her mother, and Bacall is wonderfully mean as the highly unethical head of a mental hospital. Director Denis Sanders had a very curious career: he did everything, from bee girls' horror to documentaries about Elvis Presley and soul music, and the compelling war drama "War Hunt" with John Saxon as a schizophrenic soldier, plus two works that have been declared National Film Registry by the US Congress: the moving Civil War short "A Time Out of War" and the documentary "Czechoslovakia 1968". Here he is also in good shape, effectively handling the story and immensely helped by Sam Leavitt's beautiful black & white / wide-screen cinematography. Jerry Goldsmith, who had worked in "Freud" in 1962, composed here another good score for "mental matters". In fact, 1964 was an excellent year for Goldsmith, who also wrote great dramatic music for "Rio Conchos" and "Fate Is the Hunter". If you do not sit waiting for a masterpiece, turn off the lights, ignore your cell phone and take it as fun, as a tale of greed and nutty plans, with fantasy solutions played by good actors, and you will probably enjoy "Shock Treatment" as much as I did.

Mental shenanigans involving out-of-work actor (Stuart Whitman), so desperate for money he'll accept any insane proposition lobbied his way, masquerading as a new patient at an asylum. He's hoping to get crucial information out of another patient (Roddy McDowall) on the whereabouts of some hidden loot, but unfortunately runs afoul of doctor Lauren Bacall (doing a Nurse Ratched years before her time). Delirious, over-the-top melodrama that's actually a hoot if watched in the requisite silly spirit. Whitman keeps a straight face throughout and actually wins the viewer over, but McDowall is just awful and Carol Lynley is hilariously mercurial as an inmate with glossy, shampooed hair. This show rightfully belongs to Bacall, pulling off an extreme role with her usual rigid-jaw aplomb. ** from ****

This film is pure camp. It was part of a slew of early 60s nuthouse exploitation films. It tries to be racy which makes it even more hilarious.

This is a very unusual role for Stuart Whitman, who was more at home as cowboys, western heroes and partners with John Wayne, but here he has for once a very interesting role, as an actor who is paid to act a lunatic at an asylum to investigate murky business there, like hiding a million dollars, which the doctor, Lauren Bacall in one of her best parts ever, suspects one of the patients to have hidden away. That patient is Roddy McDowall, and the best scenes are with him and Stuart Whitman together, one really mad and the other acting mad just to get the right information, which finally the doctor (Bacall) finally succeeds in extorting by her medicines and psychiatric tricks, all three are at their very best in acting, but Lauren Bacall actually takes the prize. I have seldom laughed so heartily as at her grand finale, while this actually is a very serious and moral tale, about the vainglory and futility of money. All three are magnificent, and although there are some really revolting scenes hard to digest, the actor does get the better of the actor (Whitman), while that million dollars finally actually is found, exactly in the very condition which Roddy McDowall all the time has insisted, and yet not in quite the expected form.

Stuart Whitman is a money-hungry actor who is hired to fake insanity in order to find $1 million in "Shock Treatment." The film also stars Lauren Bacall, Roddy McDowell, Carol Lynley, and Ossie Davis. When asked about this film, Lauren Bacall commented, "You have no idea what Roddy and I went through making that movie." I don't, and frankly, it's a little hard to tell what the problems were from the filming. It seemed pretty straightforward. She plays a doctor who would have found a good home on Josef Mengele's staff. McDowell is a patient in the asylum who killed his wealthy boss and then supposedly burned her money. No one believes that, and Whitman is hired to find out where he hid it.

It turns out, he's not the only one interested, and things become pretty dangerous for him. The movie seems to meander along, and then becomes rather exciting toward the end. It was directed and filmed in an uninteresting way, so it's not as good as it could have been.